“The Direct Project, a NHIN effort to provide a simplied, scalable, transport method for exchanging PHI will now be tested by the Rhode Island Quality Institue and the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minnesota. However, as I explained to a physician recently who confused the Direct Project with the state HIE, there are limitations to the Direct Project. It is designed only as a secure mechanism to transport and push PHI between two parties (It could be three parties if there is a Health Information Service Provider or HISP). For example, this project enables physicians that do not adopt EHR’s, to push PHI to referring physicians. It allows for physicians to push office visit information to their patients, and will enable Critical Access Hospitals to push patient discharge summaries to their personal physician. Hence, pulling information, such as in a HIE, is not the goal of the project.”
Article
allinhit, HealthITExchange, 15 February 2011
